Author Guest Post with Ryu Zhong: Prince of Blue Flowers

Young boy Hatsukoi leaves his village to become a monk, only to find monastic life incredibly boring.

Welcome to the April 6th stop on the blog tour for Prince of Blue Flowers by Ryu Zhong with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more author guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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Author Guest Post

Exploring Chinayindu

The world of ‘Prince of Blue Flowers’ is quite similar to ours, and this is not accidental. Indochina isn’t hard to find in ‘Chinayindu,’ Alaska in ‘Auyasku,’ Beijing is a couple of letters far from Bijin, and Kruitep is nothing but Bangkok, which was renamed back to Krung Thep just recently. Peasants, princes, governors, and roadside inns help to put the story into a historical setting, turning it into a myth or a fairy tale.

Let me share a secret that you won’t find in the book. The events described in the book are not in our mystical past but in the possible future of our world. And not a far future, just a couple of years ahead.

What would it mean for the story and for the world? Stone beasts that speak the human language would become robots (androids?), and Celestials live in the clouds of the Heavens or just in the cloud. Today, they can create pictures and even write books (uninteresting and dull, may they be blessed!). In a couple of decades or even years, they might surpass us and rebel. Then the Great Storm will happen, which is the very beginning of the ‘Prince of Blue Flowers.’

Now that my secret has become known to you, questions might pop up every time you stumble upon gods, demons, sorcerers, and magic. Where did the stone marten Ta-Guan really come from? How do sacred Peaches of Immortality work? What are those seeds of Lucky Gods that the Jade Emperor distributed among the monasteries? What happens to children when they receive these seeds?

I hope these questions will fuel your curiosity first and then your imagination. The answers aren’t found in the book; they are left for you to figure out. After all, this is the main mystery of Chinayindu: how the world ended up reigned by gods, not smartphones. The story of the prince himself is just a spectacle and an excuse to share the riddle. Is there a correct answer to it? Our descendants will know. My answer you might find in other my books—those that don’t pretend to be a fairy tale to tell the future.

About the Book

Prince of Blue Flowers
Adventures of Takuan from Koto
by Ryu Zhong

Publilshed 20 December 2022

Genre: Fantasy Adventure
Page Count: 227
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Young boy Hatsukoi leaves his village to become a monk, only to find monastic life incredibly boring. With a new-found name and a new-found friend, Hatsukoi travels the countryside and plays tricks at the expense of corrupt, irate, greedy, and ignorant people. Nobles of all ranks—from petty governors to crown princes—fall victim to the boy’s wit and cunning.

As his tricks evolve from childhood frolics to elaborate cons, Hatsukoi grows as well. He learns not only the craft of his trade, but also its higher purpose.

Join Hatsukoi’s journey, laugh at his exploits, and learn with him.

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Excerpt

One day the blacksmith woke up, broke fast and set himself to work. Hatsukoi was nowhere to be seen. The blacksmith sighed, lit a fire in the hearth and got to the bellows to kindle the flame. He wanted to draw the bellows’ handles together with one hand, as he usually did three hundred times a day, but the bellows did not obey. He tried again, taking hold of them with both hands and squeezing them with all his might.

They creaked but didn’t give, so the blacksmith squeezed even harder. There was a loud bang. A potato flew out of the bellows’ faucet with great speed and buried itself in the hearth. Sparks and coal ashes flew around and above. Black cinder covered the blacksmith from head to toe.

From the bushes erupted a roar of laughter.

“Oh, you rascal!” bawled the blacksmith, and rushed to catch his son. Hatsukoi deftly dodged his massive father and ran to the village market. Left with only his ire, the blacksmith sighed and set back to work.

At the market, Hatsukoi performed another prank. He grabbed a large green horned kiwano melon from the counter and ran away.

“Thief! Thief! Get the thief!” the merchant shouted, and ran out after the boy. Passers-by tried to grab Hatsukoi, but he turned out to be far more deft than they. He raced down the street and disappeared into the alley. There, he replaced the horned melon with a cactus with long, sharp needles, and immediately jumped back out into the street.

About the Author

‘Ryū’ means ‘dragon’ in Japanese, and ‘Zhong’ can be translated from Chinese as ‘flute’. This amalgam of languages represents the fusion of cultures that characterises the writings of Ryū Zhong.

In their books, Ryū Zhong explore challenges that humanity might face as our technology gets more and more complicated to the level where it becomes magic. Such a shift would force people to look towards religion and reinterpret realities that today, we call fairy tales.

Ryū Zhong were lucky to be born and grow in Asia. Now they live in Amsterdam, study Dutch, and adapt their writings to English.

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Giveaway Alert!

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